The Story of Wind Rider: Book 3 - The Bubblegum King
by RainbowDashFanClub
Summary: An interdimensional traveler who seeks only to help his own world ends up in Equestria, the traveler is no less than Pinkie Pie's male counterpart, Bubble Berry. He comes from a world where everypony is gender swapped but his world has been overtaken by creatures that feed on creativity. In the meantime, Bubble Gum and Bubble Berry end up in quite the relationship. But can it last?
1. Bubble Gets Her Wish

"I guess you were right, Bubble, there was a sequel!" said Pinkie Pie. They were in Sugarcube Corner, baking cookies. Pinkie spoke to Bubble as they both rolled out the yellow dough and cut it, placing the little round cookies onto the pans. "Just in time for my birthday, too!" exclaimed Bubble, that's what they were baking for. "I'll go and get the sprinkles for the… WHOA!" Pinkie said just before something that hadn't happened in over 25 years happened: she shook up and down like there was some sort of earthquake. Bubble, knowing what this meant, asked worriedly, "What's the doozy going to be this time?" "I don't know, Bubble," said Pinkie, equally worried, "I don't know…"

Suddenly a small gray zipper appeared out of nowhere. "Hello?" asked a high but notably male voice. The zipper unzipped, and out jumped a pink stallion with a magenta mane that looked notably like Pinkie's but shorter. "Hi…" said Pinkie, confused, "Who are you?" She was confused for good reason, she didn't know anypony but her and Bubble could do that. And Bubble hadn't yet learned the zipper technique yet. "Bubble Berry," he said, "But that's not the point. I need your help. My universe is in grave peril, Irritum and his armies have come through my city already and are taking over Equestria." "Who is Irritum?" asked Pinkie. "His armies are comprised of dark creatures that feed off of creativity. They took Solaris and Apollo," he pointed to the crown on his head that was incredibly similar to Princess Celestia's, he didn't seem at all accustomed to wearing it and it was a bit big, "And our entire world has been in complete darkness for a long time. Almost two weeks." "Solaris and Apollo are their versions of Celestia and Luna, respectively, everypony here has a gender swapped counterpart there," said Pinkie, informing Bubble Gum, "I was there once when I was a filly. I was messing around with the fourth wall and stuff… so yeah."

Just then Twilight walked in. "Pinkie? I need you to…" started Twilight, who immediately had a double take when she saw Bubble Berry, "Who's this?" "He's the king-for-now of a world in jeopardy and his world, which is just like ours but everypony is the opposite gender, is being overtaken by creativity-eating dark creatures led by a pony-like thing who calls himself Irritum and it's been dark there for two weeks," said Pinkie, "His name's Bubble Berry. But don't mind him, what can I do for you, Twilight?" "I was going to ask if you could make some gemstone cupcakes for Spike and set them out for the party," said Twilight, "But I see that we've got a more pressing matter at hoof." "I think I recognize you from somewhere…" said Berry, looking Twilight over, "You look an awful lot like a friend of mine…" said Berry, "and from what I've seen… let me guess. Prince… or should I say, Princess… Dusk Shine?"

"No," said Twilight, "But I think I recognize that name from somewhere. Nonetheless, my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle." Berry's eyes widened when he heard that. He immediately said, "Come with me." "Wait a minute, you're Pinkie's counterpart, aren't you?" asked Twilight. Berry nodded, "I think so. Most likely, anyways. I don't know." He was covered head to hoof in fur lined clothing, his fluffy tail poking through and a little bit of his forelock, not much else. His face was the only part that wasn't covered in some way or another. "How'd you get here?" asked Twilight. "You know that portal that usually leads to the human world?" asked Pinkie, "10 moons after it closes, it opens again into their world. It closes another 10 moons later." "How long have we got left?" asked Twilight. "9 moons until the portal closes," said Berry, "6 until my world is dead."

"I'm assuming you got all the way over here from the Crystal Empire by bending the time-space continuum?" asked Twilight. Berry nodded. "Can you get everypony else back there via the same methods?" said Twilight, "I'll just teleport myself. We'll rendezvous at the portal entrance."


	2. Another Dimension

Once they arrived there, Berry jumped in first. Immediately after him, Pinkie and Bubble jumped in at the same time. Twilight looked around, and then she jumped in herself. There was a brief, dizzying moment while they were teleported. Swirling colors and memories stirred around in a cauldron of bright, flashing colors. The colors become darker, darker, until they were all dark gray and black. They continued stirring around as a long, monotone, sad note played someplace in her memory. A terrible feeling of cold and loneliness swept over her, then she woke up.

When she opened her eyes, she was in the Canterlot Statue Gardens. However, despite all the dark and gloominess of the setting and the pitch black sky, something else was off. All the statues were the opposite gender as well. The guard statue was three mares in armor, and the small statue they'd erected in memory of the time Discord spent in stone that looked very similar to him was actually the opposite gender. It looked off and strange, and the darkness didn't help. Unlike before, the portal hadn't altered anything about them. Twilight quickly got her bearings, then Berry asked, "Shouldn't you have some sort of disguise? An alicorn wandering around would certainly draw attention, and your cutie mark isn't exactly subtle either…" "I thought of that," said Twilight, levitating out of her saddlebags a black cloak that covered all but her head, concealing her wings and cutie mark. "Now you just look like a really tall, really majestic unicorn," said Bubble, "its better…" Twilight had stuffed her crown into the bottom of her saddlebags as well. Nonetheless, they walked through the deserted streets of Canterlot, toward the castle.

The wary ponies looked around at the deserted streets and abandoned houses, there was very little light and the _only_ light came from the palace. They heard only a dead silence and saw only a dead city. When they finally arrived at the palace and walked inside, they breathed a sigh of relief. Not the fact that it was any warmer, it wasn't, the magical heating had gone with the ponies. They were the only ponies there. "Why did we convene here?" asked Twilight, "And with whom are we meeting?" "Did you do as I asked, Bubble Berry?" asked a voice from above them. Berry nodded. Dusk landed. Everypony bowed. "Twilight Sparkle?" asked Dusk Shine. He was a light purple alicorn, he was just as tall as Twilight, (about a half a foot taller than everypony else) and his mane was just like Twilight's but much shorter. His eyes were the same color of dark purple, he wore a crown quite similar to Twilight's. "Yes," said Twilight, "What did you want to see me for?"

"Berry told you about Irritum and his armies, correct?" asked Dusk Shine. Twilight nodded. "Well, Berry and I each had very close encounters with them and have little creativity left. We need your help," said Dusk. Twilight's analytical mind began to kick in as she thought aloud, "We'll need something that will destroy them, something or at the very least something that they'll avoid. Do some research on what they don't like. Find someplace that they won't go and hide there until such research can be performed." "You're going to be an incredibly resource to us," said Dusk, "But that means also that you'll be their biggest target." Twilight nodded. "If the exact same events transpired over here that transpired over in our world," said Pinkie, "Where's Nightmare Moon… or whoever that is in your world?" "Darkhorse Night?" asked Dusk Shine, "He's around here somewhere, DARK!" "Yes, Dusk?" asked Darkhorse, walking up to them. He was a good half a foot taller than Dusk and Twilight, he didn't have his armor on but he still looked rather fearsome.

"Meet our new guests, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and… who's this?" Dusk said, pointing to Bubble at the last part. Bubble had just recently bounced inside after looking around at all the houses and statues and stuff. "Bubble Gum!" exclaimed Bubble happily, then she stopped in her tracks. Bubble Berry had been off with Darkhorse and came back with him as well. "Who… what's… your name…" Bubble sputtered. "Bubble Berry," said Berry, plastering on a sheepish smile. "Bubble Gum," said Bubble, holding out a hoof. Berry shook it weakly, "Nice… to meet you." "You're… um… Pinkie's counterpart?" asked Bubble. Berry nodded.

"Sorry to hold up the… enthusiastic greetings…" said Twilight, "But I think we should figure out how to get some warmth here." "Bring out the sun!" exclaimed Bubble. "I… didn't think of that…" said Berry shamefully. "Neither did the rest of us, Berry," said Dusk. "Can Darkhorse do it?" asked Pinkie. "I believe so," said Darkhorse, his horn glowing yellow as he did so. It took significant effort, but it happened. "We have achieved daylight!" chorused Berry and Bubble. "Uh… jinx," said Bubble quietly. "You have to kiss a mare!" taunted Dusk. Berry leaned over and kissed Bubble on the cheek. "Done!" he said. "So… uh… what now?" sputtered Bubble, blushing furiously. "These creatures can take the form of shadows," said Dusk, "So keep a watching eye out. If you have two shadows… you're a goner."

"They'll just weed us out one by one!" exclaimed Twilight, "And the way you put it, it seems like we have no choices!" "But we do!" exclaimed Pinkie, "Since the sun is up, when it's in the peak in the sky, you can't have a shadow. These things hate sunlight. So they'll run off in search of another shadow to hide in." "You beat the system, Pinkie!" exclaimed Bubble, admiring her favorite pony. "How'd you know all that?" asked Dusk, confused. "I watched a few Dr. Whooves episodes…" said Pinkie. "I don't know what that is," said Dusk, "But that's fine." "If you stand in the light, you have a shadow," said Twilight, "And other than that one time of day when the sun is at its peak, we have no hiding place. I don't know of any spells that can make you not have a shadow…" "In the fourth wall, inside the vortex, you don't have a shadow!" exclaimed Pinkie, "But that's really only a means of transportation. It's like trying to hide in a traffic jam: sooner or later, the traffic is gonna move. And you're gonna have to move with it." Everypony nodded.

"Wait," stated Berry. His eyes went wide and they all saw the idea flash in front of his eyes. "I've got it!" he exclaimed, "It's a means of transportation, but you can go anyplace you want to go! I haven't explored every universe, so maybe, somewhere, there's a place we can hide!" "I'll use my magic to create a portal," said Twilight, "And I see your creativity is coming back in spades." "Yeah!" exclaimed Bubble, holding out a hoof. Berry hoof-bumped her, "Brohoof!" "I like that word," said Bubble, "I'm gonna use it from now on!" "Okie Dokie Loki!" exclaimed Berry. "Where are the rest of the gang, though?" asked Pinkie. "Around here somewhere," said Berry with a smile, "GUYS!"

"Yeah, Berry?" asked Rainbow Blitz (Rainbow Dash's counterpart) as he flew down. The rest of the gang followed soon afterward on hoof. Elusive, Rarity's counterpart, walked slowly down the staircase with his head held high as he wore fur-lined suit. AJ, Applejack's counterpart, wearing several layers of clothes. He wore a hat similar to Applejack's and also a work collar that all stallions in Ponyville who do farm work wore. He wore nothing else above or below his hat, his scruffy and short yellow mane poking through on both sides. Butterscotch, Fluttershy's counterpart, crouched down low with his tail dragging on the stairs and walked very slowly, his wings folded. "Hi Blitzy!" exclaimed Berry. "Ugh…" said Blitz, "Hello, Berry…" "Any particular reason ya sent fur us?" asked AJ. "We're going to another dimension!" exclaimed Pinkie. She unzipped the door into the time-space, fourth-wall vortex whatchamacallit and jumped in. Then she leaned out and asked, "You coming?" Bubble and Berry both jumped in, followed by the rest of them and finally finishing off with Butterscotch. Darkhorse stayed behind, if he went anywhere the sun would drop again and the world would become cold and dark again.


	3. FLUFFY!

In a few short minutes of stretching and flashing colors, instead of darker as before, the world became even brighter. All the colors became neon and there were no blacks or grays and no shadows. They woke up in a new world, and they fell onto a soft, fluffy surface. "Where are we?" asked Bubble. "No idea," said Pinkie. "It's fluffy!" exclaimed Berry. The grass (at least, it looked like grass) underneath them was fluffy. FLUFFY GRASS. In fact, everything was fluffy. Everything was fluffy and neon and candy colored, there were no shadows to be seen. "Did I die and go to heaven?" asked Dusk. "I don't know," said Bubble. "You can't die within the time-space continuum," said Pinkie, "So this isn't heaven. Although, to be fair, I don't know what this is either."

Suddenly something came up to them. It looked vaguely like a pony, but it was covered in fluff. It came up to them and stuck its tongue out. "PLBBTTT!" was the only noise it made. "Uh, okay?" said Twilight, confused. It put its tongue back in its mouth and gasped. "What did I just agree to?" asked Twilight. The fluff-ball-pony-thing motioned for them to come with it. Twilight assumed it was a mare (or at the very least female) because of its high eye-face ratio and long eyelashes. It (or, I guess, she) was bright neon blue. She led them into a shiny, fluffy, candy-colored city. "Where are we going?" asked Dusk. The pony turned around and stuck its tongue out twice quickly, looking bewildered. Then it turned and kept walking.

She led them into a tall building in the center of the fluffy city. It was bright yellow (Although, to be fair, everything was bright around here, if that wasn't already clear. Bright and neon.) And it looked vaguely like a castle. They walked inside and a whole bunch of giant kazoos were blown. The queen (the white fluff ball with the crown sitting on the throne) stuck her tongue out as they entered. "This is the _weirdest_ world I've ever seen," muttered Dusk. Twilight nodded. Above the throne it said on a (fluffy) banner, "The Fluffle Puff Queen". "Fluffle Puff?" asked Berry, apparently having read it as well, "What's that?" "These ponies, apparently," mumbled Twilight, looking around, "They are quite fluffy, after all." "_Quite fluffy_ is an understatement," mumbled Dusk, rolling his eyes. "Can anypony speak… whatever they're speaking?" asked Twilight when a neon green fluffle puff came up and started waving its tongue around and spraying spit everywhere. Intermittently, all the other fluffle puffs nodded.

"Hold on a sec, my PLBBTTT is kind of rusty," said Pinkie Pie. She walked up and started with her… speaking… if you could even call it that. "PLLBBBBTTT, PLBBTT PLBT PLBTTT PLLBBT PLBT, PLLBBBTTTTT!" Pinkie speak-raspberried. The orange fluff ball with the crown on nodded and raspberried back a simple, "PPLBBTTT." "What did you say?" asked Twilight quietly when Pinkie returned. "We are guests who air from another universe, please excuse our sudden appearance, we are here on a whim," Pinkie translated. "Well then," said Dusk, "That's informative for a whole bunch of PLBBBBTTTs." Pinkie burst into giggles and so did half the fluffle puffs in the castle. "What did I just say?" asked Dusk. "You said 'snow-strawberry'!" exclaimed Pinkie. Dusk facehoofed.

They stayed in a (fluffy and neon, of course,) hotel on the outskirts of the town. They got a couple awkward stares from passersby, given they weren't fluffy and all that. "These beds are the best thing I've ever felt!" exclaimed Bubble Gum. "Agreed," said Bubble Berry, jumping in bed with her. "There aren't all that many beds," said Pinkie, "Hey, Dusk? Can I sleep with you?" "Uh, sure," said Dusk, making room. "Rainbow Blitz?" asked Twilight, "Willing to sleep with me?" Rainbow Blitz said with a sigh, "Why not?" He shrugged and flew over. Butterscotch and Elusive slept in the same bed, finding safety in the fact that they knew each other were clean. AJ slept on the floor at his own consent. He honestly didn't care.

After an hour or so, Bubble and Berry were the only ones up. "You still awake?" whispered Berry. "Yesserooni!" whispered Bubble, "You can't sleep either?" Berry shook his head. "Whatcha wanna talk about?" whispered Bubble. "My full name is Bubblicious Louis Berry," whispered Berry. Bubble giggled softly. "Bubblehead Diane Gum," whispered Bubble. Then it was Berry's turn to giggle. "My mom used to joke that I really was a bubblehead," whispered Bubble. "My brothers used to chew on my tail when I was a kid," whispered Berry, "they used to call me Bubblicious, not because they didn't like my nickname, but because they thought my hair was delicious." Bubble giggled. "You have the same middle name as Pinkie Pie," Berry whispered. "I know," whispered Bubble, "It's like we were destined to be friends!"

"Well," they said in synch. "Why do we keep doing that?" Bubble whispered. Berry kissed her on the cheek. "I'm not complaining…" she continued. Berry giggled. "Maybe I can't sleep because I'm cold," whispered Bubble, "Hug?" "I can do better," whispered Berry, kissing her. Bubble closed her eyes, and soon they were asleep.

The next morning, Bubble and Berry awoke to a gentle chorus of voices. Twilight and Dusk were at their bedside, they said in synch, "You two getting up?" "Yeah," they said in synch. Bubble kissed Berry for a change. "Well then," said Twilight, raising an eyebrow. "What happened last night?" asked Dusk. "Nothing," lied Bubble with a smile. "Nothing at all," lied Berry as he looked over at Bubble and smiled back. They sat up and got out of bed. "Does the queen here speak Equestrian?" asked Twilight. "Yeah," said Pinkie, "But not in public. You'll have to get a private audience with her." "You were here before?" asked Berry. "Pinkie's been everywhere, Berry-werry," said Pinkie, ruffling his mane. Berry rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. "Except when she hasn't," said Twilight. "Yep!" exclaimed Pinkie as if nothing was wrong.

Twilight levitated a scroll, a quill and an ink pot out of her saddlebags and started writing while she announced aloud, "Dear Queen Fluffle Puff, I humbly request a private audience with you at whatever time is convenient. Please confirm ASAP. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Princess Twilight Sparkle." "Good?" asked Twilight when she finished. "Good," said Dusk, "I'll send it if you want." "That'd be nice," said Twilight. She levitated the scroll over to him, upon which he summoned a greenish flame which enveloped the scroll and it disappeared in a thin cloud of green smoke which trailed out the window.

"Done," said Dusk. "Thanks," said Twilight.


	4. It's Already Too Bad

**Sorry for the delay, everypony! This chapter's finally out, though! Next chapter is going to be totally epic, I think. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that means. For now, bye and, as always, enjoy!**

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Berry's ear twitched. "What's that mean?" asked Pinkie, "I'm not familiar with your Berry Sense. Just mine. With me that means that there's something important happening that I should know about." "With me," said Berry, "It means there's a disturbance in the time-space continuum. Now, these fluffle puffs don't have unicorns or pegasi, but they do use magic. To a certain extent, that is. You and I, as well as Bubble to an extent, have special talents with the essence of time and space. These ponies, these fluffle puffs, they're born with it. The Fluffle Puff Queen is probably going to respond through a long-range semi-telepathic message." "I accept your offer," they all suddenly heard. It wasn't an exact voice, or even a distinct thought, just a feeling. "She accepts," said Bubble. "We know," said Berry. "Somehow…" said Dusk.

Twilight and Dusk teleported them over to the palace where all the guards cleared. The Fluffle Puff Queen walked up to them and said in a high-pitched voice, "You can probably tell why I don't speak Equestrian in front of my subjects." Twilight nodded. Berry, Pinkie and Bubble tried not to laugh. That voice was hardly befitting of royalty. Of anypony with an ounce of dignity, for that matter. "Regardless," said Twilight, "We came for a reason. That reason is, a world is in jeopardy. Specifically, the world from which these two," she pointed at Dusk and Berry, the rest had stayed behind, "come from. We need your help and assistance." "Have you ever encountered Irritum?" asked Dusk. At the very mention of the name the queen's eyes widened and she gasped in horror. "Please," she said, "Don't speak his name. Yes, I know him. He was here once." Her glare narrowed and she continued, "We were married once." Pinkie gasped a gasp almost as big as the one when she first met Twilight, but this time it was a gasp of not only shock but horror. "What?!" exclaimed Bubble. The queen nodded.

"As such, I know how to fight him," said the queen, "So yes. I can and will help you." "Thank you," said Twilight, "Do you have anypony to take your place? While you're gone, I mean? It won't be long, but we don't have much time." The queen nodded and said, "Yes, but I'll take care of that. Even with the sun up in your world it won't last much longer. Return, and at a time of need, I shall come. Until then…"

The time-space continuum broke altogether and they found themselves back in Canterlot Castle in Berry's world. All of them. As soon as they opened their eyes, they saw something a little out of the ordinary. Dusk Shine, a blank faced stare on his face as he stared wide-eyed into space. A spark ignited in his eyes and he fell to the ground. Immediately, though, he got up and said, "I've got it. Come on, let's go!" They ran to the Canterlot Public Library and Dusk started levitating a whole bunch of books and flipping through them. "Got it!" he exclaimed, "Come here, everypony. Listen to this." Everypony galloped over, and when they arrived, Dusk began reading aloud, "Irritum is a shadow being that feeds off creativity. He and his armies are said to come straight from Tartarus, although their real origin is unknown. They have only attacked Equestria in stories and legends and myths. There are stories originating from within the depths of the most elusive realm, it is currently unnamed, that he attacked several other universes as well. In a popular myth, there is a world in which everypony is able to enter this realm. This world was Irritum's first target. He is said to be able to enter and exit this realm, commonly referenced simply as 'the vortex', at will. His only weakness is a magical blade as he cannot use standard Equestrian types of magic, namely, Light, Dark and Shadow. He is depicted as a soot black earth pony that usually stands on his hind legs and has a much thicker coat than most ponies. He has no mane or tail. His eyes are constantly red, and if seen in the dark it is said that they glow."

Dusk stopped reading there. "Well?" he asked, waiting for a reaction. "Magical blades are going to be our best weapon," said Twilight, "And magic in general. And, speaking of magic, I think you need this." She cast a simple, quick spell. Dusk's eyes went wide and whited out as he started glowing with a red-purple aura. His wings extended but not moving, he hovered a few inches off the ground. "What did you do?!" he asked Twilight. "You'll find out sooner or later," said Twilight, flicking her tail. "Everypony knows how to create a magic blade, right?" asked Berry. "Yes," said Twilight. "Yeah," said Dusk. "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Pinkie and Bubble. "Okay, then," said Twilight, "Wait, what?" "Me too, if you're wondering about it," said Berry. "I have a rainboom," said Rainbow Blitz. "I have a bear," said Butterscotch. "I have a diamond sword," said Elusive.

"O…Kay then!" exclaimed Dusk, "We appear to be prepared." He created a magical weapon instantly. "Hey," he thought aloud, "This shouldn't be this easy…" Twilight grinned smugly and summoned her own. "Since he can't use usual Equestrian magic," said Twilight, "He can't teleport." "If he can't teleport," Dusk continued for her, "Then he can't get us if we hide in some sort of closed, preferably dark, environment. The darkness will keep him from hiding in any particular shadow and preying on any particular pony." "I know of a bunker, actually it's supposed to be a storm shelter, which we can hide in if it gets too bad," said Berry.

Suddenly Twilight looked down and saw she had two shadows. Although she didn't have hers out at the time and didn't have the time to conjure up one, she did something else: she borrowed Dusk's. How do you do that? Don't ask, I don't know. Regardless, she did it, and the second she had it in her magical grasp she stabbed the shadow. It shrieked a piercing scream and shriveled up into a tiny dot, and then it disappeared. "I think it's already too bad," said Dusk as he stabbed another shadow after summoning another magic blade for himself. "Okay then," said Berry worriedly, "Follow me."

They followed Berry through most of the city, stabbing shadow creatures left and right. Their ears were filled with painful screeching of the shadow creatures when they died. Or… were defeated… whatever happened. It made them go away, regardless. They went through a dark alleyway and Berry opened a wooden trap door. "Get inside, everypony," he said. They all nodded, more or less, and went inside. They went inside and there was a light pink glow around it as the door shut and locked. Then there was darkness. Nothing but darkness.

A few minutes of everypony shifting around and trying to get comfortable in the tiny bunker, Berry bumped into somepony. "Who's there?" he asked warily. "Just me, you goof," said Elusive, "And have you ruffians ever heard of _personal space_?" "Personal space?" asked Pinkie, being part of a pairs team she was constantly having her 'imaginary line' crossed, "What's that?" Nine ponies laughed. Nine… There were only eight of them, Twilight's friends' counterparts, Twilight, Pinkie and Bubble. Also, the last one sounded quite deep. Twilight summoned a magical blade and stabbed it in the direction of the noise. A piercing scream came from it as a shadow creature was killed. "Your jokes are so funny, apparently," said Twilight, "That the enemies are willing to give their positions away in favor of laughing at them!" "Why thank you!" exclaimed Pinkie.


	5. Cider

**WARNING: in this chapter there be drunk ponies in socks. If you do not enjoy drunk ponies in socks, you may skip those paragraphs and pretend they never happened. Otherwise: enjoy!**

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Irritum's armies, apparently, make a whooshing noise as they come closer. They used this to their advantage, figuring out where the shadow creatures were and killing them before they got a chance to attack. "Nice strategy, Twilight," Bubble told the pony who'd realized this fact in the first place. "No problem," said Twilight. Pinkie's jokes helped as well with the shadow creatures. It was much better down there, but the shadows seemed to be able to sense them. And the fact that there were very few other ponies around didn't help.

The shadow creatures weren't all that big, they had to be small enough to fit through the cracks in the wood, after all. They fended them off by a few at a time, but soon the creatures figured out where they were and started banging on the door. "I believe a shield is in order," said Dusk. "You can't cast the spell for the shield _and_ the magic blade at once!" exclaimed Twilight. "I know," said Dusk with a solemn nod and a sigh. "Don't worry about it," said Berry, summoning his own. It was a light pinkish color and the hilt had a curlicue on the end. "Yeah," said Pinkie, summoning one for herself as well, it was the same exact color and shape, "We've got it covered, Dusky. Do your stuff." "Thanks, Pinkie. Thanks, Berry," said Dusk, starting up his shield, "Despite the fact we've all got no idea how you do it." "Pinkie… manages," said Bubble simply.

After Dusk's shield was up, they stopped needing to have their magical blades. Therefore only Pinkie Pie kept hers, just in case. Twilight cast an illumination spell and, as expected, there were only 8 shadows. However, night was falling, and it began to get cold. Within a half hour everypony was shivering. "Everypony huddle together," said Twilight, "We'll conserve more body heat that way." "I've got… one problem…" said Dusk as his horn aura sputtered, "The magic here isn't gonna last much longer. Nopony told us, and I don't think anypony, even the books, knew, but these things suck magic like shadowy ticks." "There are only three ways to create magic. One is a spell I don't know offhoof," said Twilight, "The second is the magic of Friendship, but that's been sucked dry around here. Although Dusk and his friends generate a small amount of this regardless, it's not enough to keep a magic shield going. I should know, so should Dusk. It's what we were coronated for, after all. And we'd need the Elements to harness the true power of this."

"What's the third?" asked Pinkie. "Equally, if not more, impossible. I learned about this one from Cadence. Remember how she and Shining Armor defeated Queen Chrysalis? The power of Love. That's the third," said Twilight. Rainbow Blitz sighed and said lightly, "We're doomed." Bubble rolled her eyes and said, "I didn't think I'd have to do this…" She jumped into nowhere and reappeared shortly afterward. As she was jumping in, though, she muttered, "Please don't remember anything else…" She had a sort of a glazed look as if she'd had too much cider and foam around her mouth as if she'd had too much cider. In reality, she'd jumped into another universe and had too much cider. She stood on her hind legs, supporting herself by leaning on the bunker's wall and said slowly, "Berry…"

She seemed as if she had eye shadow on, her eyes were half-shut and she wore a pair of red stockings with black rims. Her tongue hung out of her mouth as she spoke, creating a sort of half-western slur. Seeing her in the flickering red-violet light of Twilight's illumination spell made Berry blush instantly. Bubble walked, albeit slowly, on her hind legs over to him. She wiped the cider foam off her lips with her hoof and asked, "Ah think they need more magic, what you think, Berry-werry?" Berry, jaw-dropped and awestruck, simply nodded for lack of something coherent to say. "I think you have some cotton candy," said Bubble, "There." She gestured to Berry's mane. All of it. Berry mindlessly nodded again. He tried to stand, and then he flopped back down into a sitting position and looked up at her. Bubble simply gestured with her hoof for him to come. He didn't take a second glance.

As Dusk's protection spell sputtered and failed, Twilight tried to help. She couldn't do anything at all. There wasn't enough magic. As such, she put the last of her remaining magic reservoir into her magic weapon. As did Dusk. And that very instant the creatures broke down the door to the cellar. Bubble shut her eyes most of the way and summoned… a laser gun… But that was hardly the weirdest thing that she was doing at the time. "What's she doing?" asked Twilight. AJ shrugged. Elusive facehoofed. Rainbow sighed. Butterscotch hid. "No idea," said Dusk. "Me either!" said Pinkie.

Meanwhile, firing pinkish laser shots this way and that, Bubble sat in the corner. "Come here, boy," she said saucily. Berry walked over and Bubble immediately sat bolt upright and kissed him. Berry's entire face turned bright red, but yet he returned the kiss. They squinted, and then their eyes whited out as well as everything else.

When they woke up, it was the middle of the night. However, Dusk immediately cast an illumination spell. Bubble no longer had the glazed look on, nor was she quite so… drunk. She still had socks on, though. Bubble and Berry were laying over each other on the ground, everypony else was several feet away at least. "What… happened?" asked Bubble. "You…" said Berry, not being able to tell her. Bubble looked down at the stockings she was wearing and remembered instantly. Her eyes went wide and she blushed. "You don't mind?" Bubble asked worriedly. Berry shook his head, blushing as well. They were inside the bunker, but the door was fixed yet open. There were no shadow creatures anywhere to be seen. "O…Kay then!" said Pinkie, breaking the awkward silence that followed.


	6. Battle Plans (Or Lack Thereof)

"I just searched for any life forms," said Twilight, "These things would show up. There's nothing here. Only 8, that's us. Berry, Bubble, you just evacuated every single one from Canterlot!" "You can even do that?!" asked Pinkie. Twilight quickly unfolded her wings, and then refolded them. "Oh… yeah," said Pinkie. Twilight closed her eyes and raised her eyebrows, smiling to create a "Yeah, that," sort of look. Dusk's horn continued to glow like a flashlight as they walked back to the palace in the dead of night. When they arrived everypony's adrenaline rush had died down to the point that most of them had bags under their eyes and all of them barely were able to walk. "I suggest bed," said Pinkie, the least tired of all of them. "Good idea," said Twilight. Most nodded. Those who didn't have the strength did nothing.

"Tomorrow we'll find Irritum and kill him," said Dusk with a yawn, "But tonight we'll go to bed." Everypony got into their beds and they fell asleep within moments. They didn't get very much sleep, though. Darkhorse rose the sun later (not by too much) than usual so the 8 friends could sleep in a little. A few hours after the sun rose, though, everypony awoke, stretched, got out of bed and walked down the staircase for some breakfast.

They ate a hearty meal while discussing battle plans and reading books on the subject. They agreed that Rainbow Blitz and AJ would find some ponies to comprise a small army, mostly of unicorns, who could use their magic (their current most powerful weapon) to kill Irritum's armies. Bubble, Pinkie and Berry would go up to the Crystal Empire and collect Prince Cadenza and Princess Golden Armor. Twilight and Dusk would stay behind in Canterlot and fend off any other shadow creatures. Elusive and Butterscotch would check around Canterlot and see if any ponies were around and reassure them that it was all right now. "Sound like a good plan?" asked Twilight when they finished breakfast, levitating all the dishes into the sink. "Yes-indeedily!" exclaimed Bubble. "Absolutely-tootly!" said Pinkie. "Yesserooni!" Berry said. "I think it's marvelous, darling," said Elusive in his rich voice. "Anything you want to do is… fine…" said Butterscotch softly. "Rock on!" exclaimed Rainbow Blitz. "Eeyup!" said AJ with a nod, and everypony went their different directions shortly afterwards.

Bubble, Pinkie and Berry set off (through the time-space continuum, walking the whole way would be nuts) to the Crystal Empire. "Where would you ponies like to go?" asked a voice. Pinkie spun around, and she found something that shouldn't have been particularly weird…

A fluffle pony.

A purple fluffle pony.

"What are you doing here?" asked Pinkie. "Travelling," said the fluffle pony, she sounded like a little filly and was only about half Pinkie's height. "Funny, that," said Bubble, "So were we!" "You lost?" asked the fluffle pony. "Sorta," said Berry. "Where are you going?" asked the fluffle pony, "I know my way." "Crystal Empire, Equestria #1044567," said Pinkie. "I knew there were more of them," Bubble thought aloud, "But over a million? Seriously?" "Yeah, pretty much," said Berry with a chuckle. "Oh, I know," said the fluffle puff, "That-a-way!" She pointed. "Okay," said Pinkie, noting the direction, "Thanks!" "No problem," said the fluffle pony, "I found where I was going too." Then the fluffle pony disappeared and the three friends set off in the direction the pony had pointed them.

Meanwhile, Elusive and Butterscotch made their way through the empty streets of Canterlot, trying to find some source of life, and more importantly, information. "Butterscotch, dear," said Elusive, "Have you see any signs yet?" "Um… no…" he said shamefully, continuing to look around. After a few minutes, Butterscotch then noted softly, "I think they would be in underground cellars, though, sort of like we were, to fend off the shadow things?" "Impressive thinking, Butterscotch," said Elusive, "Let us check." Then they shifted their gaze from above them to below as to find any other cellars ponies could be hiding in.

"Butterscotch! I think I've found something," shouted Elusive. Butterscotch came flying over, landing close to his friend. "There's probably somepony down there," Butterscotch muttered, looking into the blackness as Elusive opened the cellar door with his magic, "They're probably confused and scared and… oh my." Elusive cast an illumination spell as they walked inside and all they saw were five or six ponies, most of them mares, lying unconscious on the ground. Each had three, four, five shadows. "Isn't there anything we can do?!" asked Butterscotch in horror. "Yes," said Elusive, "Run."

They checked a few more cellars they found, there weren't any ponies that were still alive, excepting the last one they checked. As they'd come to expect by now, everypony was on the floor. Everypony but one. There was a unicorn. A light blue unicorn with a lighter blue mane, a stallion, he had on a cape that was torn in several places and he clutched a hat in his forehooves. Elusive and Butterscotch barely recognized the unicorn. Despite that, however, Butterscotch flew over and landed gently by the quivering pony. "Trickster?" he asked.

Rainbow Blitz and AJ had set off in different directions, Rainbow toward the eastern side and AJ to the west. However, as night fell, everypony returned. Rainbow came shortly before AJ did, behind him was an army. A small one, but an army nonetheless. AJ came in with yet another army of maybe 100 ponies behind him. And Pinkie, Berry and Bubble had long since come back from the Crystal Empire with the Prince and Princess. Elusive, Butterscotch and Trickster walked in afterwards. Immediately Twilight recognized the pony. "You're… Trixie's counterpart… aren't you?" "The Great and Powerful Trickster knows not what you talk about," said Trickster before removing the overall grandeur to say, "Just kidding. Your friends told me all about this switching thing, and I believe so, yes. Regardless, I'm happy that you're raising an army to fight these shadow creatures." "We have only a few more days," said Berry, "The shadows will overtake all of us."

"Oh, stop being so grim, Berry-werry!" exclaimed Pinkie, "We have an army!" "There are more where we came from," said one in the army, a tall, light gray pegasus stallion with a messy light blue mane and a tornado cutie mark, "But they don't want to come. They fear they shadow creatures will just prey on all of us, one by one, even quicker given that we'll all be grouped together. Those who haven't been hit by these creatures yet fear that if they get involved, they will fail to continue 'passing under the radar' as they believe." "This won't be enough to destroy all of them," said an orange unicorn stallion with bangs and a pink mane with a cutie mark of a five-pointed star surrounded by six other, smaller stars. "What makes you say that?" asked another unicorn stallion, he was white with a cobalt blue mane that was styled similarly to Butterscotch's but cut very short, quite abruptly. He had a cutie mark of a pearl. "Before we do anything else," said Pinkie, "I want to get to know you ponies!"

"Okay," said Twilight, "I suppose that could build morale…" Bubble had already walked up to another stallion that looked quite similar to her and asked, "Don't I know you?" They compared cutie marks. They were the same. "Hey!" Bubble exclaimed, "You have to by my counterpart here! What's your name?" "Cotton Candy," said the stallion. "Bubble Gum!" exclaimed Bubble, holding out a hoof, "Nice to meet you!" "You too!" Cotton said.

Meanwhile, Pinkie was greeting all the other ponies. Pinkie, with her eidetic memory, was able to remember the names of the ponies back from her world and find their counterparts. Star Sparkle's counterpart, Nova Shine, for example. Whirlwind's counterpart, Hurricane. Winter Pearl's counterpart, Snowy Pearl. Lasso Loop's counterpart, Lariat Loop. Scootaloo's name, coincidentally, stayed the same. "Cool!" exclaimed Pinkie once she got to know everypony, "Okay. Now we can get around to what we'll do fighting these things." "A.k.a. actually doing something useful," muttered Twilight. Dusk facehoofed.


	7. Doing Something Useful

"I've discovered," said Twilight to their armies, "That these things can only be killed with magic. As such, I want a raise of hooves of who knows the spell." A bunch of hooves shot up, among them was Nova Shine. "Nova," said Dusk, "I want you to teach the spell to any unicorns who don't know it." Nova saluted, "It's my special talent, after all, Dusk." Dusk smiled and nodded. "You know what would be useful?" asked Twilight, "More ponies. I know of at least 2 other worlds we could get ponies from. Or, in one world's case, should I say…

People."

"Oh!" exclaimed Pinkie, "You mean the mirror thing? Well, the portal's not open, and I can't exactly access it…" "I can, though," said Berry. "Oh yeah!" said Pinkie, "Okay, Berry. You go with Twilight to get some more ponies, both from my world and the human world. 'Kay?" Berry nodded. "Hold my hoof, Twilight," said Berry. Twilight did as he asked. Then they jumped into nowhere and disappeared.

"How you find your way around this place I have no idea," said Twilight. "Focus on your destination," said Berry, "It'll help a lot." Twilight nodded and focused on her memory of the outside of the portal. In a few minutes they were there. Twilight stood up, helping Berry up as well. Twilight wore the same clothes she had before, Berry wore dark magenta pants and a light blue shirt with three balloons embroidered on the shirt pocket. "This is new," said Berry. "Tell me about it," said Twilight, "Don't worry, I've been here before. C'mon, and don't worry about the legs. They do take some getting used to, but you'll get the hang of it." They walked inside, and as Twilight predicted Berry got the hang of his new appearance.

A bell rang and a ton of people flooded through the hallway. Twilight and Berry simply stood there. They were suddenly bumped into by somepony Twilight immediately recognized. "Oh, hey, Twilight!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash, "Funny seeing you here! What brings you to our side of the multiverse? And who's this?" "That was the lunch bell, right?" asked Twilight, jogging her memory. "Yep!" said Rainbow, "Discuss it over lunch, maybe?" "Great idea," said Twilight.

They walked through the lunch line with their trays and sat down at a table. All of Twilight's friends joined and greeted her, most asking who Berry was. Once everyone was sat down and quiet, Twilight said, "This is Bubble Berry." "He looks a lot like you, Pinkie," said Rainbow, noting the similarities. "Let me guess," said Pinkie before gasping and saying all in one breath, "There's another version of your world where everyone is the opposite gender but they're still all ponies and he's my counterpart in that world and you're here because you're trying to find more ponies for your army you're raising to fight some shadow creatures with the help of some fluffy dimension-hopping creatures! Right?" "This happened last time," said Rainbow sarcastically, "And despite how weird that is, that's exactly what's going on, right?" Twilight nodded sheepishly. "Okie Dokie Loki!" said Pinkie Pie, "Well, if you're making an army, I'll come!" "Not that it'd make any difference," said Fluttershy softly, "But I'll come too if you want…" Rainbow saluted and said, "Orders, Princess?" "Not right now, Commander Dash," said Twilight, "Later."

Everyone joined in and agreed to come. A few people had overheard their conversation and gathered around their table. People were muttering things like, "Twilight Sparkle's back! Isn't that amazing?" and "Where did she go, anyways?" and "They're building an army… that sounds cool!" "I heard you were building an army," said a familiar voice through the crowd, "I'd like to sign up." "Sunset Shimmer?" asked Twilight. Sunset made her way, gently, through the crowd that had gathered round the table and said, "Yeah." "A raise of hooves for whose coming?" asked Twilight. Nobody minded her Equestrian terminology, and everyone there raised their hands. Among them was Sunset Shimmer. "Ah'm pleased to see ya're coming," said Applejack, looking over at Sunset. "Thanks," said Sunset, "But honestly, how could I leave my friends?" "You just covered two Elements right there," commented Twilight. "Couldn't have done it without their help," said Sunset, pointing to Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity. "They're good friends," commented Twilight, "And they'll be even better soldiers. Right, girls?" "YEAH!" everyone shouted.

"Great thing about Berry," said Twilight, "Is he's an interdimensional traveler. Berry? Demonstrate." Berry opened a zipper portal into 'the vortex'. "Whoa," everyone said at once. "Come on, everybody!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie, jumping in while shouting, "WHEE!" Rainbow Dash shrugged and jumped in as well. Then Fluttershy jumped in, and now everyone knew it was safe simply because someone like her would do it. Rainbow and Pinkie were tricksters and daredevils. But hence the most recent occurrence, everyone jumped in. And they were led through the vortex and to Equestria, #1044567 to be precise.

"A thousand and fifteen more ponies, coming up!" exclaimed Berry as they jumped out by threes, fours, fives and more until everyone was out. "You counted?" asked Dusk. "No, Twilight did!" exclaimed Berry. "That sounds more like it," said Dusk. "One problem," said the other Pinkie. She had a little trouble walking around on her hooves. Sunset Shimmer was the only one who had no problems. "Sunset?" asked Twilight, "Give these… ponies, now… a crash course in being a pony. Okay?" Sunset saluted and said, "Listen up!" Then she started her lesson. "Kay," said Pinkie, "Now I'll go back to my world and get more ponies!" "There are a lot of ponies in Equestria," said Twilight, "You're going to need somepony who can talk loud enough to…"

Pinkie simply pulled out her megaphone. "…All-righty then!" said Twilight, "Go ahead, Pinkie. Be back in an hour, tops." She knew full well that Pinkie's megaphone trumped even the Royal Canterlot Voice (by a lot) volume-wise. "Absolutely-tootly!" exclaimed Pinkie before she placed the megaphone in her saddlebags and jumped into nowhere. Pinkie came back a half hour later, twenty thousand ponies (roughly) behind her. "This… is the biggest army I've ever seen," said Rainbow Dash, flying up and getting a look at things. As she landed she bumped into…

Herself…

"Twilight!" exclaimed Rainbow, "Quit it with the duplication spells!" "I didn't do anything," said Twilight. "Who are you?" asked both Rainbow Dashes at the same time. "I'm Rainbow Dash, who are you?" they said in synch again, "Rainbow Dash!" Then they facehoofed…

You guessed it.

At the same time.

"It's gonna need to get bigger," said Nova Shine, "There's a ton of these creatures around." "Hurricane," said Cotton Candy, "You said earlier that there were more ponies, they just wouldn't come out. I say we fix that!" "Agreed!" exclaimed Bubble Gum. "Don't forget me!" exclaimed Bubble's ponified human counterpart. "I agree with Rainbow," said Bubble. "Both of them?" asked Bubble's other self. Bubble nodded and continued, "This is really weird." "It's got to be a nightmare for the author, too," commented Pinkie. "I totally agree with you," said Pinkie's other self. "Hi…" Fluttershy said to her other self. "Hi…" her other self replied. "I like you," Fluttershy said quietly, "You're not so noisy like those other ponies. I mean… nothing against them… but…" Her other self nodded and said, "I agree with you." "Once the war's over, wanna come to my cottage and meet my animals?" asked Fluttershy. "Great idea," said her other self, "And then you can come to my place on the Canterlot High campus and we can hand out fliers for the animal shelter together!" "Um… deal? If that's okay with you…" said Fluttershy, holding out a hoof gently. "Deal. Uh… that is… if that's okay with you…" said her other self, shaking it with no force at all.

"Back on topic, though," said Pinkie, "We should find those ponies and tell them to get off their lazy flanks and fight! 'Cause the shadow thingies are gonna come regardless!" "They won't want to unless they have some specific reason to, darling," said Rarity. "Indubitably," said Elusive. "Well said," commented Rarity. Elusive nodded sharply. "We'll have to win against these things," said Snowy Pearl, "At least once." "I think I know how," said Twilight, "Alicorns."


	8. The Alicorn Quest - Part 1

**Sorry for the wait, everypony! (Did you know this is the longest chapter of anything I've ever written? Fun fact, I guess!) So have an extra long chapter (both to compensate for the over-three-day wait and because I couldn't find a good stopping point before then). Enjoy!**

* * *

"The Princesses?" asked Pinkie. "The Princes?" asked Berry. "Principal Celestia?" asked Fluttershy's other self. "No, no, and no," said Twilight, "I'm talking about the ancient alicorns. The creators of the multiverse. All universes, all suns and moons, all of everything." "The real ancient alicorns only exist in myths," said Dusk, "Sundrops and Moondancer?" "Hmm," said Twilight, "It's the same in our universe. A mare named Sundrops and a stallion named Moondancer?" Dusk nodded. "This is strange," said Twilight, "But maybe not as strange as I'd thought…" "I don't even know if they exist anymore, in the material universe, I mean," said Dusk, "And if they do, I don't have any idea where they'd be!" "All alicorns transmit a magical signal, the older and higher level the alicorn, the stronger the signal. If I search for it, I should find it," said Twilight. "However. First we'll go to our separate universes and find books on the subject. I'll use some magic, a large amount, to keep a telepathic channel open with Dusk. Everypony else? Stay here. We'll be back soon."

Dusk and Twilight used significant amounts of magic to teleport to the libraries in their respective universes. Dusk didn't have to travel over universes, just a long distance, but it was still quite difficult. Twilight and Dusk held up their own ends to keep up their telepathic channel. "I found something," Dusk thought, Twilight heard him and replied, "What? What's the title of the book?" "Ancient Equestrian Legends and Myths: Volumes 1-4 set. Page 1056," Dusk specified. Twilight confirmed and found the book, opening it to page 1056. "Listen to this," though Dusk, "I'll read this section. It says, 'The two ancient alicorns are said to have originated before the universe began. They do not vary between universes as they are interdimensional beings…' blah, blah, blah." "They do not vary between universes," thought Twilight, "The author of that book somehow knew about… wait. Here, I'll read a section from mine. It says, 'Sundrops and Moondancer, they're said to have five horns, one in the center and four on the outside. However, there are some descriptions of the two that vary between universes.' It doesn't make much sense… unless you parse it a little between mine and yours. That would go like this: 'Sundrops and Moondancer, the two ancient alicorns, are said to have originated before the universe began. They're said to have five horns, one in the center and four on the outside. However, there are some descriptions of the two that vary between universes.' Makes much more sense, right?" "Yeah," thought Dusk.

Twilight and Dusk teleported back to Dusk's universe where everypony was waiting after placing the books in their saddlebags. "We figured out something interesting," said Twilight. "They're interdimensional travelers who can have direct or indirect influences on ponies' minds and vary between universes," said Dusk. "We'll find them," said Twilight, "According to this book…" She pulled the book out of her saddlebag with her magic and said, "Beneath Canterlot Castle." "Our universe?" asked Pinkie. Twilight shook her head. "My universe?" asked Berry. Twilight shook her head again. The Fluffle Puff Queen jumped out of nowhere and stood beside Twilight and announced, "My universe."

"Talk about dramatic entrances," muttered Pinkie. "Tell me about it," muttered Bubble. Several ponies tried not to burst into chaotic laughter at how the queen spoke, but nonetheless, Twilight then continued, "This may require sufficient and advanced magic, I'll be bringing Dusk along with me. The Fluffle Puff Queen shall also come along as she knows the way around. Nova Shine, Star Sparkle, you'll be briefing the army on everything from swords to armor and how to use everything." The two nodded. Then Twilight continued, "Bubble Berry, Pinkie Pie, Bubble Gum, Cotton Candy, you'll be in charge of helping everypony out with anything they need. Think you can do that?" The four nodded as well.

"Okay," Twilight said, "Although these people," she pointed to those who'd recently come from the human dimension, "Know the basics of being ponies, I'll need Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Blitz to help out the pegasi with flight mechanics and all that. I'll need Sunset Shimmer to help everypony out with magic and how it works. You too, Trixie and Trickster." The three saluted her. "Okay," said Sunset, "Let's get going!" Nopony heard her. "Let us," said Trixie and Trickster in unison, "EVERYPONY! OVER HERE SO WE CAN TEACH YOU THE POWERS OF MAGIC! CALLING ALL UNICORNS!" Everypony gathered around. "You're good," said Sunset. "All right," started Trixie, "Let's get going. Now, the first thing I want you trying is a levitation spell…"

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Blitz flew up and inspected. Dash brought a cloud down. "Anypony who can jump onto this cloud, come with me." After a quick run-through, all the pegasi walked over to a section of ground. "Okay, everypony start flapping. Don't take off yet," said Blitz. "Now, take off slowly," said Dash. Everypony did as she said. A few had a hard time taking off, but they managed at last. "Okay, now fold your wings. Don't worry, the impact isn't too much, you're only a few feet up," said Dash. "How do we know you're experts on flying, anyway?" asked a mare with a dark green mane and a pale yellow coat. She had a cutie mark of a leaf. Dash sighed and said, "Didn't you hear the Princess say so?" "No…" she said, "And even if I had, why would I have to believe her?" "I have an idea," said Blitz. He whispered something in her ear. Dash nodded.

They flew up into the air and nodded to each other. Immediately they did what they did best: sonic rainbooms. They crisscrossed across the sky and flew back down, braiding their trails together as they did a corkscrew to slow down. Then they hovered and dropped the last five feet to the ground. Almost everypony there was agape, even Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo's other selves. "Okay then!" exclaimed the mare, "You've convinced me. I don't think any regular pony could do something quite that cool." "The proper term is 'awesome'," said Dash, "And it's called a Sonic Rainboom. Harder 'n it looks." "Tell me about it," said Blitz, folding and unfolding his wings repetitively in a failed attempt to loosen the kinks.

~Meanwhile, someplace…

"I tell you, we're lost!" exclaimed Moon, "I knew this spell was a dumb idea!" "I'm sorry," said Morning, "I didn't mean to get us lost… Oh, and… hindsight bias." "Hey, I think I hear something," said Moon. They were lost in 'the vortex' after Morning had been practicing various magic spells. They'd been lost for a while, neither quite knowing where they were or what had happened. All they knew was that if they jumped out someplace at random, they might not be able to get back. "I recognize that voice!" Morning exclaimed, "I think that's… Star Sparkle?!" "Cast the spell again!" exclaimed Moon. Morning quickly did so.

They woke up to a blur of noises and sounds as literally hundreds of ponies crowded around the two. Morning straightened the ring around her horn and got to her hooves. Moon got up as well. "Where are we?" asked Morning simply. Pinkie Pie pushed her way to the front of the crowd and said, "Equestria, #1044567." "Pinkie Pie?!" exclaimed Moon, confused, "I wondered where everypony went." "Speaking of which, where were you?" asked a confused Pinkie. "Lost in 'the vortex'," said Morning, "It was my fault…" "It's okay," said Moon, patting her partner's shoulder, "You didn't mean to." "Actually," said Rainbow Dash, "You'd be quite useful in the war against the shadow creatures…" "The what?" asked Moon. "Let me explain," said Twilight.

After Twilight finished her explanation on the situation at hoof, sitting at her hooves were a couple dumbstruck ponies. "That was pretty much my reaction when I heard about all this, too," said Bubble Gum. Suddenly somepony called out, "I think somepony is in trouble!" Moon recognized the voice. So did Morning, for that matter. "Mama?!" asked Moon. "Yeah," said Wind Rider, "But that's not important. I just heard… from… that way!" She pointed east and immediately started flying that way. "Where are you going?" asked Dash.

Wind Rider stopped for a minute while she spoke, "To Ponyville! There's somepony, or something, there… I think… never mind that! Regardless, Twilight, Dusk, Dash, Blitz, go to the Fluffle Puff's world and find the ancient alicorns. I'll be back…" She muttered the last word of her sentence very softly, almost inaudibly, "Probably." And with that, Wind zipped across the sky. "Hey!" she heard a noise. She didn't dare stop, though. "We're coming too!" exclaimed Sun Rider. Moon Pool was flying alongside her twin sister, each with their partners on their backs. Then there was somepony else. "I'm coming too!" exclaimed Whirlwind. She carried Star Sparkle on her back, the unicorn was obviously worried but clung on tightly to the light gray pegasus mare's light blue mane as she leaned in to the wind. "You ready to rock and roll?" asked Sun. "Yep!" exclaimed Whirl. "Yeah," said Moon. "Great!" said Wind, "Let's get going."

They went faster and faster, each one blinking plasma out of their eyes and squinting. The unicorns they carried on their backs made for much more weight. The only one who didn't carry this burden was Wind, who was probably one of the best conditioned of the four pegasi. Sun and Wind rushed ahead, the others flanking them. They flew faster, building up speed, creating the familiar aura around their front hooves. "Can you hold on?!" Whirl screamed over the wind to Star, worried. "I can just open a telepathic channel," Star's voice echoed through Whirl's thoughts, "It's easier." "Oh," thought Whirl, "I keep forgetting you can do that." "And yeah," thought Star, "I can hold on." She magically conjured up ropes to tie herself to Whirl's back. The incessant whistling of the wind and the burning in her wings distracted Whirl, but not nearly as much as the gorgeous mare on her back.

"You ponies ready for a rainboom?!" Whirl screamed over the wind. She got a whole bunch of nodding. "Kay," said Whirl, grinning smugly, "Then try to keep up." She dashed rapidly ahead, her aura brimming around her whole body now as Star crouched down to be more aerodynamic. Then Whirl went even faster due to the lack of wind resistance that had previously occurred due to Star's horn. Then, suddenly, as if on a drumbeat, Whirl broke the sound barrier. Everypony else followed soon afterward. "Awesome?" Whirl asked Star through her thoughts. "As you so beautifully put it," thought Star, "It was 'Awesome'."

They sailed through the sky all the way to Ponyville. They went into a couple of loops and landed near the Everfree Forest. "Why are we here?" asked Sun. "I heard something," said Wind, "I want to check it out." "You heard something from _this far away_?!" exclaimed Whirl. Wind simply nodded as her ears twitched this way and that and she walked into the forest. "You all know of the Tree of Harmony, correct?" asked Wind. Everypony nodded. "Well, I heard…" started Wind, "Wait." She stopped walking and looked around.

They'd crossed a river and a bridge and came upon a castle. They rounded the castle and on the other side was a gorge. They'd gone around the gorge where they knew the Tree of Harmony stood and walked up to a small statue. It wasn't very big, roughly the size of the ponies there (including the base), and it was shaped like seven keys. "I remember this statue," said Sun. "What's below the statue is what we're looking for," said Wind and she began to dig.

They dug under the statue and they saw a small, purple box. "What's inside?" asked Moon, curious. Without a single word, Wind picked up the box and opened it. On a silver cushion there was a box. It contained a white orb, roughly an inch in diameter. "What's that?!" asked Star, "I haven't read about anything like it!" "That's because there are no books on the subject," said Wind, "Because it isn't known to exist."

~A whole bunch of years earlier, the day after the Equestrian Surfing Championships, Eastern Equestrian Coast

"This trophy is really gorgeous," tapped Wave Pool. "No trophy could ever match you, in case you were jealous," said Wind Rider, "Describe it to me." "Okay," tapped Wave, looking the trophy over, "It's got several pillars that lead to a second, third, and fourth base, on top of the fourth there's a mare on a surfboard with waves around it. She has her hooves raised in the air and she's holding a… I don't know what that is. It looks like a pearl…" As Wave touched it, the entire trophy toppled over onto Wind. Specifically, her wing. Just as the small, white, pearl-like orb touched the base of her wing her vision whited out.

A few minutes later, Wave shook her marefriend awake. "Wind?" she asked hoarsely. "Ugh," said Wind, then she tapped, "What happened?" "You sort of… your eyes glowed white… when that pearl touched your wing… are you okay?" tapped Wave worriedly. "I just felt…" tapped Wind in shock, "This has to leave. It's a magical orb… I don't know how it got here… it needs to be hidden. NOW."

~Back in the present

Wind had told this to all of them, and then she said, "After a while, we found a suitable hiding place. Coincidentally, a while later, this statue was erected on top of its place. It possesses pure alicorn magic, the kind all the Princesses use. I didn't think Equestria was ready for it yet, but since this is a parallel universe, I believe that my counterpart has buried this one here. As such, to stabilize the universal balance, when we return to our world, the orb in the other world must be put through the same things and, in the end, both must be destroyed."

"Why?" asked Whirl. "Because," explained Wind, "All alicorn magic, if not used properly, is easily corrupted. Since this magic no longer belongs to an alicorn, it must be destroyed, or it will be corrupted." Morning shuddered at the thought. "But for now, as long as it is used properly, it can be a great resource against the shadow creatures," said Sun. "Exactly," said Wind. "I think I know who can use it," said Whirl. "Who?" asked Moon. Whirl pointed to Star. Star looked shocked. "Why me?" Star asked. "It fits," said Whirl. "Okay…" said Star, levitating the small orb over to her.

"There's nothing against staying here for a few hours," said Whirl, "Besides, my wings could use a break." She stretched her wings out and then she flopped onto the ground. "Want me to help?" asked Star. "You know how to massage?" asked Whirl. "I was trained for a little while," said Star sheepishly. "Let's go someplace warmer," said Whirl. "Good idea," said Star, "Let's go back to Ponyville, everypony." "Yeah," everypony chorused.

When they arrived in Ponyville, Star and Whirl went over to the library they knew was Dusk's. "I don't think he'll mind," said Star, "Twilight sure doesn't mind when I come to her library, even when she isn't there!" Whirl chuckled and went inside. Moon and Morning stayed over at Butterscotch's cottage and Wind didn't want to invade and corralled a few clouds to make a bed out of. Sun stayed at Rainbow Blitz's place.

"Which bed do you want?" asked Star. "Does it matter?" asked Whirl. "Not really," said Star, "Lay down, spread your wings. I know what I'm doing." Whirl did as her friend told her, she lay on one of the beds and spread her wings. "What hurts?" asked Star. "Everything," sighed Whirl. "Then I have no choice but to rub everything," said Star with a giggle. She started at Whirl's back hooves, working up the well-worked athletes' legs and getting out all the cramps and kinks. "Good so far?" asked Star. Whirl lay there on the bed, panting and nodding. Star quickly worked up her back and to her wings. They were hard, almost rocklike, the muscles spasming.

Star kneeled and straddled Whirl, leaning over and grabbing the right wing. She rubbed up and down, it started to give a little. Every once in a while, Whirl gave this little gasp. Star found this cute, but she still asked every time if her friend was okay. Every time she got an exasperated nod from a head that instantly flopped right back down onto the bed. Then she moved to the left, it was originally equally tense but Star loosened it. "Hey," said Whirl, "Can you do both at once?" Star nodded. Whirl spread her wings out flat, Star pressed down on them lightly. "Well?" asked Whirl, apparently not feeling a thing. Star pressed harder. "There!" said Whirl, "Can you go any harder, though?" Star pressed harder still, a chill ran down Whirl's spine and she shivered, causing Star to shift a little and push her full weight down involuntarily. Whirl gasped, then she said, "Don't… stop…"

Obliging, Star continued. Whirl, keeping her wings perfectly still, lay there while her friend continued to be better than a masseuse at a spa. Star shifted a little rubbing and pressing at the same time. The first time she did this, Whirl's tail did a little involuntary flick. "Does that happen often?" asked Star, confused. "No," said Whirl, "But it's not like stuff that feels this good happens often." "So… I'm not terrible?" asked Star. Between ecstatic gasps, Whirl said, "Far… from it." Suddenly Star wondered what would happen if she pressed with her magic. Before contemplating for too long, she did so. Whirl looked back at her immediately with wide eyes. "Oh my _gosh!_" Whirl exclaimed, "Whatever you did, do that again!" Whirl's tail continued to intermittently twitch along with every push. "You… have stiff wings," said Star. "What'd ya expect?" asked Whirl, "I did a sonic whirlwind." "I'd expect that," said Star, continuing her massage with her magic.

"I was wondering, Whirl," started Star, "I know this one spell…" Immediately Whirl's eyes lit up. "What is it?" she asked eagerly. "Want me to try it?" asked Star. "Yeah!" exclaimed Whirl. "Okay," said Star, "Hold onto your hooves!" "Or, in my case, my wings," joked Whirl. Star laughed a little before she began casting her spell. Star crisscrossed her hooves on Whirl's back as she did so, it was more comfortable somehow. The crimson aura surrounded her horn, first one, two, three… then a bright crimson ball encompassed the two and it shrunk to cover only an outline of the two, then it pushed itself into them. Star gasped, a combination of relief and excitement. Whirl shrieked, although it wasn't a bad thing. A noise of utter exhilaration. She tried her best to hold up but ended up collapsing in a heap on the bed. "That. Was. Awesome," said Whirl, her eyes closed and wings relaxed. Star snuggled up beside her and said, "Glad you liked it."

"Let's get some rest," said Star.

"Good idea," said Whirl.

And with that, the two slept on top of the now disheveled bedclothes, not a care in the world.

…For now.


	9. The Alicorn Quest - Part 2

Whirl and Star met the others outside the library the next morning. "Shouldn't we go back now?" asked Morning. "I could totally do another sonic whirlwind!" said Whirl, her wings perking up. She winked at Star. "I don't think I'm up to it, Whirl…" said Moon. "If Moon's not flying, I'm not flying," said Sun. "I think it's the unicorns' job to do some work," said Star, "Right, girls?" "I think so," said Morning. "Okay, Morning," said Star, "Teleportation spell at the ready!" Morning nodded. "Ready…" said Star, bunching everypony together, "Steady…"

~Meanwhile, in the Fluffle Puff's universe, that same morning, 7:00 a.m.

Twilight Sparkle, Dusk Shine, Rainbow Dash and Rainbow Blitz followed the Fluffle Puff Queen down the steps of a deep staircase. "How far down does this go?" asked Dash, her and Blitz were flying down slowly while the rest took the stairs. Despite the fact that it was well-lit with torches and the like, it still had a rather eerie feel beneath the flickering torchlight. "A ways, it looks like," said Blitz, looking down. "We're almost there," the queen said. Then she jumped off the staircase. Everypony was shocked for a few moments before she shouted up, "It's only a few feet! It's just not lit down here!" "I can fix that," said Twilight, jumping down and casting an illumination spell.

Everypony else jumped down soon after. There was a door, on either side were complex ruins that emanated from two separate holes. "There's a reason this chamber hasn't been opened," said the Queen, "There haven't been any unicorns or pegasi on our world for a long time, yet alone alicorns. Alicorn magic is the only thing that will open the door." "Alas," said Twilight, "We have two alicorns." Dusk and Twilight walked up to either side of the door. "Ready?" asked Dusk. "Ready," said Twilight. With that, the two alicorns extended their wings and pushed their horns into the holes in the wall. A spell was cast, and at first nothing happened. But as the two put more and more magic into the door, the runes began to light up.

It started very small, only a couple of inches of red-violet light. Then it grew stronger and stronger, moving the glow along the complex patterns carved into the wall and finally their magic, at the same moment, reached the statuesque figure on top of the doorway. It was two alicorn figures, crossed horns and wings extended. The eyes were dull gray until the magic reached them, then they began to glow white. Along with them, the two real alicorns' eyes began to glow as well. It whited out the entire room until…

After the light faded, they saw that the door had opened. Inside, there was but a couple of statues of majestic-looking alicorns rearing and a tiny brass bell. Everypony walked inside except Twilight. She stood there in awe. "This has to be…" sputtered Twilight, still completely awestruck. "Hey," said Blitz, "What's this?" He pointed to the bell. "We ring it to summon the ancients," said Dusk. "Well then," said Dash, "What are we waiting for?" She reached for the bell. Dusk, in an effort to pull it away, levitated it away but rung it. The sound started very small, almost inaudible, a tiny 'Ding' that could have been expected from such a bell. However, it didn't stop. It kept going, emanating through the room and getting louder.

When the noise had reached the level of a large train blowing its whistle five inches from their ears, the sound suddenly ceased. The stone cracked and the alicorns fell onto all four hooves. One was white with a blue-violet mane that faded to orange at the base, it was long but not flowing like Celestia and Luna's. The tips of her wings and hooves faded from purple to orange and finally to the white of her coat. The same was with all five of her horns. Her eyes were the array of red colors in a beautiful sunset, it was mostly red but reflected some pinks, blues, oranges, yellows. Her cutie mark was a star, a spiral of purple, orange, black, spiraling in a circle around a white center. It seemed to glisten in the light. She was at least twice the height of Dusk and Twilight and she simply stood there looking majestic, not saying a word. She stared off into space, not meeting any of the ponies' gazes.

The other was very deep, dark blue, he was just a tiny bit transparent, he had tiny pinpricks of white within his coat. His wings looked like they were constantly shedding some dark matter, coming off before disappearing entirely. His mane was of two layers: a light purple outside and a dark purple inside. It, too, was shedding this mysterious matter. His cutie mark wasn't too different from Twilight's, it was a very light ice blue, almost white, and it seemed to glow. It was of an eight-pointed star. His horns were all the same as his coat although they weren't transparent the slightest. He, too, didn't say a word. "I thought Moondancer was a mare," thought Twilight, she didn't dare say anything aloud for fear of upsetting these majestic ancient alicorns. Suddenly, out of the blue, where the bell and its pedestal had been appeared another alicorn.

She looked incredibly similar to Rainbow Dash, save the messy mane. Her coat was the same color, her prismatic mane was flowing like Princess Celestia's and her cutie mark was an arched rainbow forming a semicircle with the middle hollowed. Even her magenta eye color was matched. "That must be Aurora," thought Twilight. It was only then that Twilight noticed they each had a crown. Sundrops had a crown that was bright white, adorned with several light purple gems atop it. Moondancer had a crown that had a crisscrossed pattern to it and had a full moon embolism on it. Aurora had a crown that was rainbow colored, the edges were cyan and it was adorned on the tips with several white gemstones shaped like clouds. Each had a small, white, pearl-like orb somewhere in the middle of their crown.

The first thing Aurora, or any of the princesses for that matter, looked at was Rainbow Dash. Aurora walked up to the hovering pegasus, staring into her eyes. "Your royal highness," said Dash, bowing mid-air, "Queen Aurora. My name is Rainbow Dash, I am pleased to make your acquaintance." "Your manners have really improved, Dash," Twilight thought. "And tell me, miss Rainbow Dash," said Queen Aurora, her voice sounding so similar to Dash's that Twilight had to listen incredibly carefully to tell them apart, "What is your full name?" "Rainbow Aurora Dash, your highness," said Dash. She finally got up and realized what it was, though. The exactly matching features… the similar cutie marks… the tone of voice… "I believe you and I are related," said Aurora, "Well, then again, it's not like I have to be so formal. Hey, Dash." Aurora cleared her throat, then she transformed.

Her coat was the same color, her features roughly the same, but her mane style had changed. It looked a lot like Fluttershy's, excepting it didn't go over her eye, just most of that side of her face. It was no longer flowing and she had no horn at all. Her wings were normal pegasus-sized and her crown changed into a large, dark blue hat with a pink ribbon around the middle section and a little white feather stuck in the ribbon. It was a little chewed up on one side. Her cutie mark transformed as well, it was a pink heart with seven little droplets coming down from it, each a color of the rainbow. "M…Mum?" Rainbow sputtered.


	10. Queen Aurora

**For those who haven't read the Rainbow Dash comic called, "After The Rain Goes" there's a flashback refresher to get you up to speed on where this is coming from. And yes, I changed a few things. It's a fiction, everypony! For those who have, you can read it or not at your own consent. Enjoy!**

~A long while back, while Rainbow Dash was a filly, Cloudsdale

Rainbow Dash's fondest memories of her fillyhood were about her mother. One of her favorite things to do was to try on her mother's hat, despite how much too big it was. It covered her eyes and her mother would snicker softly and lift the hat off her daughter's head and smile. Because of how much she stood out, Rainbow often hid from the bullies who tried to make her life miserable. Her mother would always stand up to the bullies and fend them off with this wonderful ability she seemed to have.

One day, they were taking a walk through the clouds when a terrible thunderstorm rolled in. Rainbow clung tightly to her mother but she couldn't hold on, the whipping wind was too fierce. She was separated from her mother, they were on separate clouds and neither could flap their wings hard enough to fly over to the other. Rainbow cried out, hoping her mother would find her again. But soon the storm became too much and she buried herself in a small cloud, only her tail peeping out, waiting the storm out. When the storm subsided, she walked around and yelled for her mother. She kept yelling until she nearly tripped over something. It was her mother's hat, it had a piece torn off and there were several burn-marks. Suddenly it hit the little pegasus filly what had happened, and she wept.

Soon the bullies found her again, they taunted her. Without her mother to give them the evil eye, she had to do something. Anything. As Rainbow Dash grew madder, her mane grew spikier and spikier. Then she screamed back at them. They flew off, she apparently had the same natural strength as her mother. She became the best flier in all of Cloudsdale and became friends with the coolest pony, or in Gilda's case, griffon, there. She was still teased, but she handled it by demonstrating that, clearly, she was better than they. And when she arrived home, Rainbow walked up to her own little corner in her house, snuggled up under her mother's hat, and she fell asleep there.

~Back in the present

"But you…" said Rainbow, tears in her eyes, "You were… in the storm…" "Not exactly," said the now transformed Aurora, her voice having shifted a little. Rainbow looked confused. "You probably require an explanation," said Aurora, "Well, here it is. You see, I had to leave. I had to leave quickly without a seven year old filly asking why." "Couldn't I have come with you?!" asked Rainbow. "No," said Aurora, "Would you like none of your friends to have gotten their cutie marks? Would you like your friend Twilight here to never even have passed her entrance exam? Because I was going to be trapped in stone on another universe for an indefinite amount of time, and that is what would have resulted had you come with." "Oh," said Rainbow, looking over at Twilight, "I don't think I'd want that to happen." "There's my little Element of Loyalty!" said Aurora. Rainbow couldn't help but smile. Then she said, "Go on."

"I created the storm so I'd be able to get back, but I left my hat…" said Aurora, "So you'd remember me." "I remember how sad I was when I lost it," said Rainbow, "How'd you get it back?" "Magic," said Aurora. "So… how you scared off those bullies was simply revealing your true self to them for a few moments?" asked Rainbow. Aurora nodded. "Then how'd I do the same?" asked Rainbow. "You may not be an alicorn, Rainbow Dash," said Aurora, "But you're one fearsome filly when you're pissed." "I have but one question," said Sundrops, finally speaking, "Where may I find my daughter?" "What's her name?" asked Twilight. "Mi Amore Cadenza," said Sundrops, "Although I liked to call her 'Cadence'." "I believe in the Crystal Empire," said Twilight, "In my world." "The Crystal Empire?" asked Sundrops, "I remember when that city was cut out of crystal. But what's my little pegasus filly doing there?" "She's not a pegasus anymore," said Twilight happily, "She's an alicorn. She rules there with her husband, my brother Shining Armor."

"My little pegasus," said Sundrops, reminiscing, "All grown up. Next thing you know it, Aurora, your daughter Rainbow is gonna be an alicorn." "An… alicorn?" asked Rainbow. "Well," said Sundrops, "I'll be going to visit my little filly now." Then the alicorn teleported. "Don't you have any children, Moondancer?" asked Twilight respectfully. "No," Moondancer said sadly, "Not anymore." "What do you mean?" asked Rainbow. "My only child was destroyed a while ago," said Moondancer, "Sombra turned to the dark side long before." "How about Celestia and Luna?" asked Twilight. "Tia and Lulu?" asked Moondancer, "They're still around?" "Yeah," said Twilight, "They're in Canterlot Castle, I think. My world, of course. And I think they'd be very happy to have a visit from their father."

Moondancer teleported away, leaving only Aurora. "Are you going anywhere?" asked Dash. "No," said Aurora, transforming back into her natural alicorn state, "I want to stay with my little one." "Beg your pardon," said Blitz, "But we need you ponies so we can kill the shadow creatures back in our world." "Those old things?" asked Aurora, "Oh, not again." "It's happened before?" asked Twilight. "Yeah," said Aurora, sighing, "A long, long time ago. As your Equestria was being created, a dark substance from another world spawned those creatures. Luckily, we united all the alicorns available at the time and destroyed them. But I'm afraid their leader got away." "That explains it," said Twilight. "How long have we got?" asked Dusk. "Two days," said Berry, popping out of nowhere then popping back again. "That… was random…" said Aurora. "You get used to it," said Blitz. Everypony nodded, having had their own experiences with one fourth-wall-breaking pony or another.

"It'd be really rude to pull the other alicorns from what they're doing currently," pondered Twilight, "It can wait another day. Our army is still being trained, after all." "You raised an army?" asked Aurora, "I think I remember that happening last time… an alicorn princess named Varity did the same thing…" "Varity?" asked Twilight, "I read about her… She was killed in the Last Griffon War, correct?" Aurora nodded sadly. "You knew her?" asked Twilight. "Yeah," said Aurora in a tone very similar to Rainbow Dash's, "We were friends…" "And if you're anything like Rainbow," Twilight pondered sadly, "This was a big loss to you." "You know your friend well, Twilight Sparkle," said Aurora, still with a sad undertone but with a genuine smile on her face.

"How do you remember all this?" asked Dash. "A memory spell," said Aurora, "You're right, I normally couldn't have remembered all this stuff given how long I've lived so far. Since the universe was created, namely." "My mum is awesome," said Rainbow Dash with a smug grin. "Indeed she is," the Fluffle Puff Queen said as she walked in, "And I'd like to meet her." "Hello, old friend," said Aurora. "Queen Aurora?" asked the Fluffle Puff. "Hello, Fluffy," said Aurora, "Nice to see you again." "You two met?" asked Dusk, bewildered. "Although miss Fluffy here isn't an alicorn," explained Aurora, "She has lived about as long as my niece, Celestia."

"Your niece?" asked Twilight, "Who was the mother if Moondancer was the father?" "Sundrops, my older sister," said Aurora, "Moondancer began on the other end of the vortex and we found him when we were young mares. With their combined magic they created the universe… I was left with my only talent: rainbows. I tried to make things beautiful the best I could… despite the fact that I wasn't appreciated. I'm glad that Rainbow Dash here made them appreciated." "Can you do a sonic rainboom?" Dash asked, flying being one of the only things that mattered to her. "Where do you think they got the legend?" asked Aurora with brashness that was quite unworthy of an alicorn of her stature as she spread her wings. They were huge, her feathers were formed in spirals on the first and second layers. Only the outermost layer had normal pointed feathers and they were huge.

"Wanna take those impressive-looking wings out for a spin?" asked Dash. "Absolutely," said Aurora, "Some nice mother-daughter bonding after a couple decades in stone. Forgive me if I'm a little rusty, I was encased in stone after all." "No prob'," said Dash, "Let's go!" The two took off, running through the door and flying up the long spiraled staircase and into the sky. Twilight and Dusk rolled their eyes as they climbed the stairs with the Fluffle Puff Queen, Blitz hovering close by and flying up slowly.

Meanwhile, Aurora and Dash had already done a sonic rainboom apiece and were keeping going, flying fast for the heck of flying fast. Aurora had long since opened at telepathic thought exchange and was telepathically talking to Rainbow. "Nice job," thought Aurora, "Wanna go for a double rainboom?" "Why not?" thought Dash, speeding up. "You're on!" thought Aurora, speeding up as well to catch up to her daughter. They traded off being ahead but only by a couple of feet at a time. The rainbow crept up their back hooves and they turned upside down to stay inside the atmosphere.

"You're good!" thought Dash, "Not what I'd expect from somepony who spent several decades without a single workout, trapped in stone!" "Trust me, I feel younger already!" thought Aurora as the rainbow continued to creep up her back hooves, encompassing her tail. "How young?" Dash asked. "Two thousand or there abouts!" thought Aurora. Dash giggled, though nopony could hear her. The two closed their eyes completely and brought their forehooves in back of them as the rainbow encompassed their faces. They were over the ocean and extremely high up, so no damage would be done. And no damage was done as the double rainbooms were performed in synch.

"Wanna go faster?" asked Aurora. "It's possible?!" thought Dash, her eyes still tight shut. "I've broken the light barrier before," thought Aurora, "So I'd assume my daughter, the amazing Rainbow Dash, could do the same…" Her competitive instinct kicking in, Rainbow thought, "Bring it." "Then follow my lead," said Aurora, casting a spell real quick before zipping out of the atmosphere. Somehow, Rainbow could still breathe, despite being in space. She'd caught up with her mother and was nearing light speed. "I honestly didn't think this was physically possible," thought Rainbow as she opened her eyes cautiously to reveal a stunning sight of the planet below them, or… above them because they were flying upside down… "Technically, it's not," thought Aurora, "We're far out of the atmosphere. A normal pony wouldn't have been able to breathe. However, our awesomeness is too good for that. Plus, I happen to know a spell to compensate for it."

"You're really awesome, Aurora," thought Dash. "Please," thought Aurora, "Call me mum." Dash smiled and thought, "Okay, mum. Now, you ready to break the light barrier?" "I have to warn you," Aurora thought, "You won't be able to describe what you'll see next." "Watch me try, though," thought Dash. Aurora rolled her eyes and squinted. With a final flap of their wings, there were three rainbooms on top of each other. A triple rainboom broke the light barrier for each pony and suddenly Dash felt weightless. Gravity apparently doesn't apply to ponies going at tachyon-like speeds. And that was the only thing Dash could see: tachyons. A bright orange haze, it didn't feel as if she was going anywhere. But she looked down (or up?) and the entire planet was a blur. She looked for a specific patch of land and spotted the polar ice caps where the Eskimo ponies live. It seemed like a tiny white dot and she passed it seven times every second, roughly. "This is the speed of light," Aurora thought, "Welcome to the edge of the universe." "Meh," thought Rainbow, "Ever thought of going _faster_? Flying is almost effortless here!"

"True," thought Aurora, "Let's do it!" "It might be dangerous," Rainbow thought, mock-warning her own mother. "Danger is my middle name," thought Aurora. "And Aurora is mine," thought Rainbow, "Let's do this thing."


	11. The Vortex

Aurora and Rainbow flew along at the speed of light, literally. They continued to accelerate, speeding past the only particles that had previously been able to keep up. Rainbow kept track of the northern ice cap as she speeded by it seven, eight, nine, ten times a second. After she was passing the fifteen-per-second mark Aurora told her to stop, telepathically of course. Rainbow nodded a little bit and thought, "Okay." Now Rainbow finally felt as if she was going someplace, speeding past the tachyons as she went around the planet with a triangular rainbow trail behind her. Apparently, a normal rainboom has a flat trail, a double rainboom has two flat trails layered on top of each other with a little space between, a triple rainboom has a filled triangular trail. Although Rainbow didn't know what she was going to break through next, she knew the trail would be filled square.

"What are we breaking next?" Rainbow asked telepathically, hoping Aurora could answer her only remaining question. "The time-space continuum," thought Aurora, "We're going to end up in the vortex. An uncontrolled double or triple rainboom can end up there, but the only thing guaranteed to get you there is a quad rainboom." "The vortex?" Rainbow thought, "That's the thing Pinkie uses to teleport around, correct? Also those fluffy things?" Aurora simply nodded. They flew faster instantly, Rainbow wanting to finally see this 'vortex' Pinkie had been talking about and Aurora just keeping up with her daughter. It was easier to fly faster because there was nothing to fly against, nothing to hold them back. Or, rather, not nothing, but the only thing they had to fight against was the gravity of the planet below (or above?) them.

Another aura formed around their hooves, but this time it wasn't the usual white color. It was a white and black swirling thing, Aurora seemed a tiny bit surprised but Rainbow was more surprised. "This is weird," thought Rainbow. "Not exactly," thought Aurora, "You're just not used to it. Neither am I, I haven't flown this fast in a while, but at least I know what it is. This is a little bit of the vortex, trying to get through. Keep it up and you'll get there."

~Meanwhile…

"Great job, team!" exclaimed Rainbow Blitz, "You're almost ten feet up!" They'd gone back to the other universe and had been training recruits. "Whee!" exclaimed a white pony with an extremely curly, bright yellow mane and a cutie mark of a pink balloon, "This is fun!" "I think it's scary…" said Fluttershy's previously-human counterpart, looking down and swallowing hard. "Keep it up!" Blitz shouted, desperately flinging his forehooves up and down, "We've got to all be _at least_ competent fliers by the end of today!" He looked over at the horizon, the sun was almost setting. Blitz buried his face in his hooves. "We're never going to go anywhere with this team of losers," he mumbled, annoyed.

Trixie, Trickster and Sunset Shimmer were all helping out to teach the unicorns how to use magic properly and were doing very well. They'd gotten past basic spells (levitation, basic shield spells, basic magical weaponry) and into more advanced stuff with large breaks in between. Levitation of oneself, advanced shield and weaponry spells, short-range teleportation, simple transformations and invisibility spells were among those they were working on at the moment. They were, in short, doing better than Blitz was. However, to be fair, they had more helping hooves.

~In Ponyville (for now), the same universe, 6:30 p.m.

"Go!" exclaimed Star, casting the teleportation spell as everypony was teleported at once. They opened their eyes and were in Canterlot, the sun was setting. "That was cool," said Sun, shrugging. "I'd call it 'cool' too, Star," said Morning softly, "Nice idea." "You helped too, Morning," said Moon sweetly. "I… I know…" Morning said sheepishly with a small smile. "Where are we?!" They looked around, they were in Canterlot Castle in the correct world, but there were ponies around. Also, unlike before, the castle was pristine and well-kept. There was a lineup of ponies, of course all of them gender-swapped from what Star and her friends were used to, and at the top there was Prince Solaris greeting everypony. "I… think this is the Grand Galloping Gala, the one immediately after Dusk was coronated. Prince Apollo and Prince Dusk Shine were there as well, standing beside Solaris. They were toward the back of the line, and they were all wearing beautiful dresses.

Star's was bright, sparkling red and sleeveless, adorned with small orange stars everywhere and she wore a small orange star earring. The dress was trimmed with yellow ribbons and she wore golden slippers. Whirlwind's dress was a dark gray with dark blue streaks down the entirety of it and trimmed with white, cloud-like fluff. She wore bright yellow sandals with straps that wrapped around her hooves and tied in back halfway up her hoof and under her dress sleeves in front, which were also trimmed with the white fluff. Morning's was shimmering pale blue with half-sleeves, she wore a blade-shaped earring and shiny silver heels. Moon's was black with stars on it, it was trimmed in dark blue lace and the sleeves came down so far you could barely see her small dark blue flats. She wore a pearl necklace with a crescent moon charm in the middle of it. Sun's had a gradient from white in front to yellow near the wing-holes and dark orange at the back. The train was infinitesimal and it had no trim and also no hemming so it was frayed at the edges. It looked as if it had previously had sleeves but somepony had ripped them off and as such it was sleeveless. She wore no earrings or necklaces but since the dress didn't cover her back hooves (looking at it from the side) she wore silver stockings on all four hooves and tennis shoes over them.

"Your outfit," said Whirl, motioning to Sun while they were waiting in line, "Is… odd." "Thanks," said Sun, taking it as a compliment. Meanwhile, Whirl took every second she had to spare to stare at Star's dress and, for that matter, Star herself. "Like it?" asked Star on one such occasion. "Absolutely," said Whirl, "Like mine?" Star nodded. "I have one question," said Moon, "Do we have tickets?" Star nodded again and levitated five tickets out of her left front shoe. "I have a question to ask as well," said Morning quietly, "Why would the spell bring us here?" "I don't know," Star whispered, as to not cause any staring, "But it wasn't of my doing. It was probably the spell or some outside interference… unless…" Star trailed off. "What is it?" asked Whirl, still rather quietly but speaking up a tad.

"Well," said Star, "A sufficiently advanced alicorn could have deliberately made us get here instead of where we were going, teleport us through time and space instead of simply the latter. But the only ponies who could do that are alicorns… there are only three that know what we were doing. Namely, Dusk (who wouldn't do it because he doesn't care), Twilight (who wouldn't do it because she'd want us back ASAP), and Aurora." "What are Aurora's motives not to do it?" asked Sun. "There aren't any, that's what worries me," said Star. "I've figured out who tampered with the spell, then," said Sun, "It's Aurora." "But last I checked, she was flying with Rainbow Dash!" whisper-shouted Moon. "Last I checked, she was one of the Ancient Alicorns," said Sun sarcastically, "She can do rainbooms and stuff in her sleep. She can certainly do such an advanced spell at the same time." "But the question becomes," said Morning worriedly, "What does she want us to do here?"


	12. At The Gala (Again)

By this time they'd moved up in line a bunch, they were almost to the front. They stopped talking as they moved to the very front and heard Solaris say in his deep voice, "Hello all, welcome to the Grand Galloping Gala." They all bowed respectfully and walked in. They looked around, they saw the gender-swapped counterparts of all the high-society ponies, Bass Clef playing the cello as the rest of the orchestra did their parts above the dance floor. "I heard stories about how Bubble Berry and his friends turned this place into a ridiculous mess last year," said a haughty, well dressed mare next to them, "I'm glad that they won't be here this year to mess things up. Well, excepting Prince Dusk, but he has to be here for it is part of his royal duties, is it not?" "Indubitably," said a stallion next to them, levitating a glass of juice over and taking a tiny sip.

"I have no idea what we're supposed to be doing here, Morning," said Moon quietly, "That's just it, though. How are we going to find out, and more importantly, how are we going to get back?" "I don't have the magic left to get us back," said Star shamefully. "It's okay, Star," said Whirl, trying to comfort her. "Time runs differently around here," said Morning, "I guess Aurora's gonna get us back when she thinks we've learned what we need to learn." "Okay," said Moon, "Let's get going, then." They walked around the room, trying to find something out of the ordinary. So far… nothing. High-society ponies this way and that. "I can't find anything!" Morning said, her yelling achieving the relative decibel level of normal speaking. "Me either, Morning," said Moon, "Hey, wanna check the garden?" "Good idea," said Morning. Then they walked out into the garden.

They walked through the garden, among the hedges, and again they saw nothing unusual… at first. There was an old pony, a very old pony. She had no cutie mark, she looked much older than Granny Smith. Her coat was light gray, roughly the color of Whirlwind's, her mane was light blue, the hue of Whirlwind's and full of dirt, it was very thick. She had wings, they were very large compared to usual pegasus wings, making her look almost griffon-like. She held a hoe in her mouth as she hoed the ground. "Oh, hello, there…" she said, dropping the dirt-covered hoe on the ground before looking around to see them, then she became completely awestruck. "What's the matter?" Moon asked the slack-jawed mare. "You… you're Twilight Sparkle's cousin, correct?" the old mare asked, walking slowly up to Star Sparkle. "How do you know Twilight?" asked Star. "She visited my world a while back… I come from a world where ponies don't have these 'cutie marks' that you all have, there are no unicorns and the pegasus' wings are very big. This is because… there is no magic in my world," said the old mare, sighing at the end.

"How old are you?" asked Moon. "I… don't know… probably around a thousand… not sure," answered the mare, scratching her wrinkled forehead. She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow, spreading a single wing and folding it again. Whirl's eyes went wide and in front of her eyes flashed a scene from a dream she'd had several times over, the first when she came over to this world.

It was this very mare, she was sitting on the ground. She was facing away from Whirl, her hair blowing in the wind. She had some reddish stuff on the tips of her wings and when she heard Whirl approach she didn't get up, she simply unfolded one wing and turned her head slightly. Whirl suddenly noticed where she was. She was in a graveyard; this pony was sitting in front of a tombstone. She didn't open her eyes, they were closed lightly and her brow was furrowed. The reddish liquid began to drip from her open wing's tips as she pointed at the gravestone in front of her and spoke slowly, "Their blood is on your hooves…"

"Whirl?" asked Star, waving a hoof in front of Whirl's face, "Equestria to Whirlwind, come in, Whirl!" Whirl shook her head back and forth, clearing the bad dream from her head. "Sorry, I got zoned for a bit there," said Whirl. "You…" said the mare, walking up to Whirl, "I think… I've seen you before…" "Likewise," said Whirl warily, "In a dream." Whirl told the old mare of her dream. "That's strange," said the mare, scratching her chin, "I had a similar dream, but from the other perspective." "Tell me, please," said Whirl, "Maybe we can piece this together."

"Okay," said the old mare, "I was sitting in a graveyard, and in front of me were the tombstones of all my friends. Every single one, dead. For some reason, I knew who'd done it. She showed up, she looked exactly and precisely like you, Whirlwind, down to every detail. This pony came over and, after I'd seen her reflection in the tombstone in front of me, I didn't want to look straight at her. At… you. I closed my eyes, trying not to cry, and I did all I could to make her feel miserable about what she'd done. I said…" Whirl and the mare met gazes and said in unison, "The blood is on your hooves." "This doesn't make any sense!" exclaimed Star, "Why would two ponies who'd never met have the same dream from different perspectives?"

"I… think I might have figured it out," said Morning, walking up and saying to the old mare, "What's your name?" "My given name is Lisa," said the old mare, "But my friends called me Whirlwind because… wait a second. Isn't that your name?" Whirl nodded. "Again, counterparts in another universe," said Morning. "Then… why the huge age difference?" asked Lisa. "I don't know," said Morning, "I don't know…"


End file.
